IW Capital backs Navigator with £4M to scale post-cookie advertising

Digital advertising platform Navigator has secured £4 million from IW Capital to advance privacy-first advertising in the post-cookie era.

As regulators tighten privacy rules and consumers grow wary of third-party cookies, acceptance rates are falling, pushing up customer-acquisition costs and weakening campaign performance. Navigator is built to help brands adapt.

The platform utilises exclusive, consented first-party travel data to deliver privacy-compliant, precision-targeting, enabling brands to reach relevant audiences with accurate signals while maintaining data-protection standards.

Through partnerships with major airlines and online travel platforms, Navigator aggregates fully consented first-party data to target real people based on travel intent and timing. Because travel data indicates where consumers will be and when, it’s valuable across sectors, from luxury and leisure to financial services and healthcare, offering a secure, high-performance alternative to cookie-based models.

Founded by Olympic medallist and former Ink Global CCO Steve Rowbotham, Navigator operates across the UK, US, and APAC, supporting a wide range of global brands such as L’Oréal, HSBC, Formula 1, and FC Barcelona.

Commenting on the investment, Charlie Lyon Carroll, Investment Director at IW Capital, said the firm is backing Navigator for its ability to deliver effective advertising in a privacy-first environment.

With this new investment, Navigator will advance its platform development, expand commercial reach, and launch a new SaaS product in collaboration with a global hospitality software provider.